(OT) Adding a ribbon tweeter to my speakers?

**bowtie427ss** · February 9th, 2012, 05:15 PM

Originally Posted by Cal Weldon

One of these two:

Selenium ST300-SLF Super Tweeter Aluminum Housing 264-355

Selenium ST350 Super Tweeter 264-362

I can vouch for the Seleniums, sorta.

I have some ST-320's, and like them a bunch. Sadly, they stopped making the ST-320 a few years ago. It's a facsimile/clone of JBL 2405. They do pop up on ebay from time to time.

**VolvoHeretic** · February 9th, 2012, 06:22 PM

I did an online hearing test and I could hear 12khz, but couldn't hear anything 14khz and over. My wife sure could.

**just me now** · February 9th, 2012, 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by bowtie427ss

I can vouch for the Seleniums, sorta.

I have some ST-320's, and like them a bunch. Sadly, they stopped making the ST-320 a few years ago. It's a facsimile/clone of JBL 2405. They do pop up on ebay from time to time.

JBL is now using the seleniums in some of their offerings....

link to Audio heritage discussion...
when did jbl merge with selenium? see www.jblselenium.com

**LOUDER** · February 9th, 2012, 11:18 PM

Cradledorf, First I would like to say that I haven't seen anybody have as much fun as you with your Altecs since I joined this board. Your not afraid of trying anything. It's inspirational. Second, a even cheaper Selenium to try is the ST-200. They're only twenty bucks a piece, and you might even have to turn them down running with 604's. I have three ST-350's for my three front channels and it's nice to hear highs again. But, if I could do it again I'd get the 200's. Less money. Keep experimenting !

**bowtie427ss** · February 10th, 2012, 09:04 AM

You lost me? why would I want to run them out of phase?

A 2nd order high pass filter by nature of it's function inverts the absolute phase 180 degrees.

If you trace the wires on any properly wired high pass section in a 2nd order Altec network, you will see that the red wire(+ for the horn driver) is actually connected to the ground(- minus) side of the input.

I bought that 3 set of Onkyo surround speakers and they have small dome tweeters in them that I could just pull out.

Pretty doubtful that domes will be sensitive enough. The majority of them run in the very low 90db range while the average sensitivity of your 604's is going to be ~100db.

I wonder why the HF section of my 604's aren't doing it for me? 60 year old Phrams probably. : /

Could be tired phragms, weakened magnets, or even simply the midrange forward sonic character of the 604's themselves.

For me personally, if i were going to stick with a passive network on my 604's i'd have to strongly consider cloning the 604K network which has a MF adjustment that can be dialed back a bit. Sometimes taming the mids down a bit can increase perceived VHF output.

Do you have an EQ in system such that you can try pulling down the mids a few db in the XO frequency region?

**Cal Weldon** · February 10th, 2012, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by bowtie427ss

Could be tired phragms, weakened magnets, or even simply the midrange forward sonic character of the 604's themselves.

Agreed.

For me personally, if i were going to stick with a passive network on my 604's i'd have to strongly consider cloning the 604K network which has a MF adjustment that can be dialed back a bit. Sometimes taming the mids down a bit can increase perceived VHF output.

Was the H network the first to have both?

Do you have an EQ in system such that you can try pulling down the mids a few db in the XO frequency region?

Sometimes you just have to if you're nearfield.

Cheers.

**kinomat** · February 10th, 2012, 08:51 PM

Re Adding a ribbon tweeter
Then you would no longer be a genuine 604 listener, for what its worth I would get or borrow another newer 604 crossover, yours are aged and the caps are dried out & maybe leaky,do a comparison test using pink noise source & you'll hear a high end difference. GP has a HF horn mod, which might help and they also sell a new 604 crossovers,better than the type you have, main thing is it ALTEC. (Todd White should be able to advise)

**Cal Weldon** · February 11th, 2012, 02:28 PM

That's funny.

**voice of the theater** · February 20th, 2012, 11:21 AM

Your video is blocked? Doesn't Don Henley have anything better to do with his spare time? Which cabs are you referring to--any pics?

**Cal Weldon** · February 21st, 2012, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by cradeldorf

Not nearly as boomy as the 12 footers.
<snip> I'm thinking about how to shrink my 12 footers by 3 feet .

Strange that the 12's are boomy considering the Q is going down as you get bigger.

If you want to reduce the size of the cabinet, you can always just add something to the interior to take away the volume, like bricks or wood pieces, as in a false wall or W.H.Y.